Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation display system, an operation display device, and an operation display program.
Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices equipped with touch panels, such as portable telephone terminals including smartphones, and MFPs (MultiFunction Peripherals), are being widely used these days. A touch panel is normally formed by integrating a display device such as a liquid crystal display with an input device such as a touch pad. In a case where a user inputs information through a touch panel displaying image objects such an icon and a button on its screen, for example, the user can select the icon or the button to input information by touching the icon or the button with a finger or a stylus. Further, more sophisticated touch panels have been developed. Such a touch panel can accept various kinds of input operations that are conducted not only by simply touching the screen with a finger but also by an action of lightly flicking the screen with a finger while the finger remains in contact with the screen (flicking), or an action of sliding a finger on the screen while the finger remains in contact with the screen (swiping), for example.
Meanwhile, the quantities and the number of types of information to be displayed on touch panels have been increasing, as the electronic devices have been becoming more and more sophisticated. However, the size of the screen of a single touch panel is limited, and in some cases, necessary information cannot be displayed at once. In such a case, the user can see the hidden portions by scrolling the displayed content vertically or horizontally on the screen. However, since the size of the screen the user can see at once is still limited, the portions that have been visible become now hidden, and this causes the user inconvenience.
On the other hand, there is a well-known technique for displaying image objects related to one another over multiple touch panels (this technique will be hereinafter referred to as “cooperative display”). By this technique, electronic devices having touch panels are made to cooperate, and the touch panels thereof form one large screen. By using such a technique, image objects can be displayed on a larger screen formed with multiple touch panels. On the touch panels performing cooperative display, the user can operate these touch panels in the same manner as in a case where the user is operating a single touch panel (this operation will be hereinafter referred to as a “cooperative operation”).
Among the touch panels of electronic devices currently available on the market, however, there exist several systems depending on operating principles. The criteria of the pressing forces for the touch panels to accept operations may vary with the systems (the criteria will be hereinafter referred to as “load criteria”). Examples of touch panels of principal types include resistive touch panels and capacitive touch panels. A resistive touch panel has a higher load criterion than that of a capacitive touch panel, and requires a greater pressing force for an input than a capacitive touch panel does. In view of this, when performing a flick operation or a swipe operation, for example, the user normally finds it easy to operate a touch panel having a low load criterion, because such a touch panel can be operated with a small pressing force. On the other hand, the user might find it difficult to operate a touch panel having a high load criterion.
In this regard, a technique disclosed in JP 2011-150737 A has been known as a technique for improving the operability of touch panels. JP 2011-150737 A discloses a technique for preventing incorrect touch panel operations by setting different load criteria for image objects adjacent to each other. With such a technique, improvement of the operability of each touch panel can be expected.
However, even if the operability of each touch panel is improved by using the technique disclosed in JP 2011-150737 A, the user still finds it difficult to operate touch panels having different levels of operability when multiple electronic devices are made to cooperate. For example, in a case where electronic devices having touch panels with different load criteria are made to cooperate, the operability varies between an electronic device having a touch panel with a high load criterion and an electronic device having a touch panel with a low load criterion. As a result, the touch panels do not function as intended by the user, and the user might find it burdensome.
For example, in a case where two operation display devices with different load criteria are used, and the user performs a flick operation on the touch panel having the higher load criterion after performing a flick operation on the touch panel having the lower load criterion, the user might feel that the operability of the touch panels has rapidly dropped.